US troops have clashed with Iraqi fighters from Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia near the holy city Najaf today a day after the radical Shia cleric offered a truce that US forces agreed to respect.
A Reuters correspondent heard sporadic gunfire around the mosque at Kufa, just outside Najaf, and US tanks cordoned off the area. Witnesses heard explosions earlier.
Sadr normally preaches the Friday noon sermon at the Kufa mosque.
It is not clear if the latest clashes would affect the earlier truce. The US had called off its offensive against the militia after Moqtada al-Sadr began pulling his fighters from their strongholds.
US officials, who took no part in talks, welcomed the move brokered by Shia elders as a first step to ending an uprising that has cost hundreds of lives over the past two months. But they rejected Sadr's demands to be let off a murder charge and insisted he fully disband his Mehdi Army militia.
A deal with Sadr could staunch a major source of trouble for US troops in Iraq as Washington prepares to hand over to an Iraqi interim government on June 30th.
But it remains to be seen if the truce marks the end of Sadr's ambitions or rather a bid to survive and keep his forces intact to influence the new Iraqi politics after the occupation.
His Mehdi Army fighters had pulled back from frontline positions and loaded heavy weapons such as mortars on to trucks. There were many fewer militiamen on the streets and they were more lightly armed, carrying only rifles rather than grenade launchers.
But it was not clear how many had left town, as Sadr had said those not normally resident in Najaf would do.